Lynn Vieh - His Lordship Possessed

“Where to, miss?” the driver asked as he helped me inside.

Somewhere in the city Dredmore and Walsh were no doubt astonishing the Tillers with news of the Reapers’ planned invasion. Even if I could find the secret meeting place of the spiritborn, as a female I would likely not be permitted entrance.

Not that I cared to be privy to Tiller secrets. I had my own to sort out.

“Drive to the docks,” I told the man. “But don’t rush. I’m in no hurry.”

He touched his cap before he closed the door.

As the cab headed down from the Hill, I reached up and curled my fingers over my pendant. I felt the movement of the gears inside, assuring me that it still functioned as my parents had intended. The chain snapped as I jerked it from my neck and tossed it onto the back-facing seat.

My grandfather appeared in the next instant, his white hair neatly slicked back, his old-fashioned suit exquisitely pressed. “I’m not going to hurt you, lass. In fact, if you’ll give a moment to explain, I may be of some considerable assistance to—”

“Save the speech, Harry,” I said, cutting him off. “Traveling back through time didn’t rob me of my memories.”

He hid his dismay by becoming chatty. “Well, then, you’ve time enough to stop the invasion. You should start with Walsh and his daughter, but steer clear of that wretched Dredmore. Perhaps that Inspector Doyle fellow can be recruited to assist you. He seems a clearheaded chap. Why are you scowling like that? I like Arthur’s boy. Young Thomas has great potential.”

“You know very well that I’ve already been to see Nolan Walsh, and that Miranda has dealt with. You were there with me, old man.” I leaned forward. “As you’ve been with me every day and night since I was a little gel.”

“All right, then.” He sat back and folded his arms. “I’ve watched over you. You’re my granddaughter, Charm. No crime in that, is there?”

“You’re lying to me again, Harry,” I said with great patience. “You never had a choice in the matter.”

“Whatever you think, Charm.” He lifted the edge of the window shade and pretended to admire the scenery. “I say, are we near that fruit market? I smell peaches.”

“Hedger gave it away when he called my pendant ‘a ginny bauble,’ ” I said. “Certainly there are ladies among the ton who wear tiny flasks fashioned to look like bracelets and watches and pendants, and I presumed he mistook it for something like those. But I misheard him. It’s his accent; it’s almost as bad as Wrecker’s.”

“I just now realized, I’ve never seen your office.” Harry gave me an inveigling look. “We should take a ride over that way. I’ve time enough for a tour.”

“Hedger didn’t say ginny bauble , did he?” I waited, but my grandfather only stared at the floor of the carriage. “He said genie bottle .”

Harry made a halfhearted attempt to continue the ruse. “Don’t be foolish, gel. There is no such thing.”

“My parents did make the pendant to contain a spirit, but it wasn’t mine.” I watched his face. “They used it to capture and imprison the spirit of the Aramanthan they feared most. They used it on you, Harry.”

My grandfather opened his mouth, closed it, and hung his head.

“That’s how you knew everything that has happened to me,” I continued. “You’ve been hanging about my neck all this time, unable to escape the nightstone.”

“I did try, quite often, those first ten years.” He sat back. “I might have overcome your mother’s magic, or your father’s science, but the two together were beyond me. And then there was you and your devilish gift.”

“Every time you tried to cast a spell to release yourself, my power broke it.” I moved over and sat beside him. “Why, Harry? Why would Mum and Da do such a terrible thing to you?”

“I’m to blame for it, not them.” He shriveled down against the seat. “It was when I came to live in Toriana. I fear I was a little too eager to see Rachel. I hadn’t, you know, not since she was an infant. Without thinking I called on her, and, well, she took the news that I was her father, an Aramanthan, and a spy for the Crown rather poorly.”

I nodded. “Did she reject you?”

“She told me to get out and never darken their doorstep again.” He made a face. “Then, when I wouldn’t leave, your father tried to shoot me.”

“Go on.”

“I made several more attempts to speak to your mother. I even sent her the nightstone pendant as proof of my affection, but she still refused to see me.” He rasped a hand over his cheek. “I couldn’t accept the idea that my own daughter would reject me, Charm. I didn’t consider how much a stranger I was to her. And then there was you, my only grandchild.” Harry spread his hands. “Since Rachel wanted nothing to do with me, I began visiting you in your nursery at night. I hardly thought it would upset anyone.”

“Until Mum caught you at it,” I guessed.

“It terrified her to see me there, standing by your little bed,” he admitted. “She ordered me from the house and forbid me from having any more contact with her or you. I’m afraid by then I’d grown very fond of you, and I lost my temper with her. I told Rachel that if I wished to see you that I would, any time I wished, and there was nothing she or your father could do to stop me.”

I closed my eyes for a moment. “Oh, Harry.”

“Christopher, your father, already hated me because I couldn’t be explained by his science. When Rachel went to him and repeated my threats . . .” He made a helpless gesture. “I’d say that was when they decided to do something about me.”

I didn’t understand how such a powerful being could be so foolish. “Why didn’t you just leave us alone?”

“I didn’t mean to frighten your mother, so I intended to leave off, but I got into a spot of trouble while I was carrying out my duties for the Crown.” He ran a finger across his neck. “My host body was murdered.”

“The police came to our house that night to give Mum the news,” I recalled. “She and Da left me with the maid so they could go to the morgue and identify you.”

He nodded. “I was there in spirit, of course, waiting for nightfall so I could move on to another body. As soon as I saw Rachel come into the room with your father, I presumed she had forgiven me.” He heaved a sigh. “I didn’t realize how much they had meddled with the nightstone until the spell your mother cast dragged me into its confines. Once there, I discovered I had no means of communicating with you, Rachel, or anyone in the outside world.”

“And they knew my power would keep you trapped in it.” I felt more regret than anger now. “They made me your warden without ever telling me.”

“They thought it the right thing to do, I’m sure,” he chided. “Rachel had learned a little about the Aramanthan from Arthur Doyle. She must have known that once my host body died I would need another.”

I nodded. “So by putting you in the pendant, and having me keep you there all this time, they assured that you would never possess another mortal.”

“They saw to it that I would never possess you , gel,” he corrected. “That was your mother’s greatest fear.”

I hadn’t thought of that. “Did you ever want to possess me?”

“Take on the body of a young, impulsive female with no money, no connections, and no prospects in a ridiculously primitive, utterly repressed society under empirical occupation?” He shuddered. “I’d sooner inhabit a stray pup. At least I’d eat better.”

“Then you won’t mind if I pop you back into the genie bottle?” I asked sweetly as I reached for my pendant.